Rebecca Levene and Lavie Tidhar have edited these two volumes, Jurassic have published them, proceeds will go to a very worthwhile charity, and from March, you'll be able to buy either (or both!) here. It's e-book only at the moment, but a limited edition hard copy is coming, and perhaps an omnibus. Zombies contains my story 'Zayinim', at which I laboured and struggled over a period of many months, honing and polishing the sentences, adjusting the structure, refining the narratorial voice and undertaking whole weeks of detailed zom/hebie research. I can only hope you like the result.

The complete list is here. I was delighted to see Bête listed amongst the (very strong) list of best novels; and doubly-delighted that Sibilant Fricative: Essays & Reviews is listed amongst 'Best Non-Fiction'. Triple delight awaited me when I saw that “Thing and Sick” (originally in Solaris Rising 3) is listed amongst the 'Best Novelettes'. Good gracious, if I were to carry on looking down this list, and found yet another of my 2014 titles, perhaps the short story 'Trademark Bugs: A Legal History', included as well, well I would reach quadruple delight, and that would have serious health implications for my frail body. So I'll stop.

... in a more-literal sense than is usually implied by these sorts of headlines.

1. Bête, a novel: it's the best of me. £6.49 on Kindle; still some hardcover copies left in stock (pricier, but makes a better gift. Look at that cover art! I mean, obviously I can't claim any credit for the cover art. But you have to agree: it is a thing of beauty).

3. Sibilant Fricative, a collection of essays and reviews. I believe that all hardcopies of this title are sold now; so it's Kindle only: but at £3.42 it's a steal. (Many of the pieces in that volume first appeared on my Punkadiddle blog; but I've taken that blog down now, so if you want to read those pieces you gotta buy the book. Cunning, no?)

5. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Biographia Literaria (Edinburgh University Press). The first new edition since 1983 of this foundational classic of literary criticism; all annotation loose-ends tied up, new facts about the tortured compositional history of the book uncovered, 200-pages of introductory matter. And an eye-wateringly expensive price. What you gonna do? Academic publishing is a strange thing.

---
A: So. That's a lot of books.
R: It is.
A: For one year, I mean.
R: Well, it's not quite as Stakhanovite as it may, at first blush, appear. It's more a reflection of the exigencies of publishing, or more specifically of different kinds of publishing.
A: How so?
R: Well: take the two academic titles. Landor's Cleanness was written 2011-12, and OUP decided they wanted to publish it towards the end of that latter year. If it's taken until October 2014, that's partly because the wheels of academic publish grind slow. The Biographia Edition was also mostly finished by the end of 2012; and revised and readied for the press in 2013. Of all the titles in the photo above it was the one that took the most labour, partly because compiling it and writing the intro was just a laborious business, and partly because the proofing was an immensely painstaking matter. It's a scholarly edition of a classic of English letters; I had to get the text right.
A: Still!
R: Well, except that my day-job is Professor of Nineteenth-Century Literature, and pursuing research of this kind (Coleridge, Landor) is a large part of that job. Those two titles represent the main focus of my Professorial energies for nearly four years; that they both happen to appear within months of one another is just a coincidence.
A: And the Sibilant Fricative thingy?
R: Again: it's a collection of essays and reviews written over a five year period (indeed a couple of the pieces are even older than that). The labour was in pulling them together, and in that task I was aided by the mighty Ian Whates.
A: Two novels though!
R: That's a little anomalous. I don't usually publish two novels in one year! What happened is that Twenty Trillion was originally slated to appear in late 2013, but got bumped back (in the event I didn't publish a novel in 2013). Bête is the novel I'm conscious of having been writing 2013-14, and it was trickier to write than most of my fiction. Chris Priest called it 'sluttishly freeform', which (I confess) rather pleased me, in part because it means I was able to bury what might otherwise have been too procrustean a substructure (to do with riddles, Sophocles, St John, Mythago Wood, Ted Hughes and a couple of other things).
A: So will there be two novels from you in 2015?
R: As if.
A: And the Get Started In?
R: That was a commission. Being a professional writer means taking commissions seriously (provided only that they are serious commissions; as this was), and therefore finding the time to write them, to spec and as well as you can.
A: So!
R: So.

That most excellent critic Niall Alexander has reviewed Bête (in slightly spoilery mode) over at Tor.com. Snip: "This, then, is not some novelty novel, but a fully-fledged philosophical fable for our age. Affectionate albeit barbed, far-fetched yet oddly plausible, and dark, but not without a certain spark, Bête is as smart and as satisfying and as challenging as anything any of the Adam Robertses have written."

"Graham, as narrator, is a character we can all identify with, a man who knows his flaws and accepts them as part of who he is. It’s a pleasure to read about him and, thanks to the skills of the author, we’re immersed in his journey rather than simply being told about it. There are moments of laugh-out-loud hilarity, yet when Graham feels pain, we feel it too; when he hurts, we hurt along with him, to the point of sharing his sadness. Be warned – there may be tears.

As the novel progresses, society inevitably alters and adapts to the new animal intelligences and, while it’s all very believable, it’s not necessarily in the way the reader would expect. Ultimately, because Bête is about this one man, it’s all seen through his eyes; it feels post-apocalyptic at times until being reminded that society, however different, still exists.

The greatest science fiction novels take into account the changes on the people affected by the advances in technology, and Bête ranks with the best of them. What could have been just quirky and satirical – it is both – becomes so much more through intelligent writing that takes the reader through a whole range of emotions. Bête is a wonderful book that, once begun, insists on being read in one sitting; darkly comic, it’s a deeply thoughtful, moving and uplifting story from a master of the genre."

]]>http://www.adamroberts.com/2014/09/18/starbust-review-bete/feed/1SFX reviews Bêtehttp://www.adamroberts.com/2014/09/17/sfx-reviews-bete/
http://www.adamroberts.com/2014/09/17/sfx-reviews-bete/#commentsWed, 17 Sep 2014 13:19:04 +0000http://www.adamroberts.com/?p=1399
Jon Courtenay Grimwood: four and a half stars. I'm delighted; Jon is one of the most astute critics (quite apart from being one of the best writers) of his generation. Over on twitter he said: "pretty sure I said where Professor Roberts and Adam Roberts meet. Certainly meant it." My cup runneth over.
]]>http://www.adamroberts.com/2014/09/17/sfx-reviews-bete/feed/0The first review of Bête is in.http://www.adamroberts.com/2014/09/13/the-first-review-of-bete-is-in/
http://www.adamroberts.com/2014/09/13/the-first-review-of-bete-is-in/#commentsSat, 13 Sep 2014 15:31:15 +0000http://www.adamroberts.com/?p=1392

It's always a slightly nerve-wracking time, immediately before and immediately after a novel comes out. Reviews are posted. And must be read. Inevitably, every time you read a new review your heart glollops a bit with fear (after all: maybe this one will be the one that utterly cremates your writing and crushes your butterfly-fluttering soul). Luckily for me, this The List notice of Bête (the first review of the book I've seen) is not too negative:

Imagine if your food could talk back to you? That’s the extremely high-concept opener much-decorated sci-fi author and academic Adam Roberts plays with in his latest novel, opening on a bizarre but starkly amusing sequence in which a cow tries to reason with the farmer who’s about to fire a bolt into its head. By page three he’s already quoting The Smiths’ ‘Meat is Murder’ to him, and the farmer’s almost spurred to fire just for that.

The conceit in this instance is that many of the world’s animals have been ‘chipped’ in order to allow them to speak as normal humans do. Roberts’ prose is intricate and rich in scientific language and explanation, but it’s also dryly funny and on-the-nose when it wants to be, making this book about so much more than a quirky sci-fi concept. Like the best speculative work it unpeels greater themes, from the morality of AI to humanity’s relationship with its food sources, and also what the very act of possessing language and expression does to our minds.

]]>http://www.adamroberts.com/2014/09/13/the-first-review-of-bete-is-in/feed/0Ten bookshttp://www.adamroberts.com/2014/09/08/ten-books/
http://www.adamroberts.com/2014/09/08/ten-books/#commentsMon, 08 Sep 2014 08:56:27 +0000http://www.adamroberts.com/?p=1386This meme was circulating on Facebook, and I succumbed: ten books that have 'stayed with me', or had a particularly shaping influence upon me. I'm copying my answers across to here too. The strange thing was, almost as soon as I posted this list to FB I felt (as I noted in the comments, there) 'more than a little nervous, actually. Posting this feels -- weirdly exposing. Like I've given away the key to my soul. Perhaps I should delete it.' Of course, this unease was a sort of optical illusion. Nobody else cares enough about my choice of books for said choice to leave me, in any way, vulnerable. That was the feeling, though. Odd, no?

So! 10 books that had a properly shaping influence upon me. Since this is about forming me and my taste the list is going to skew adolescent, and accordingly more than a little gauche. Nothing to be ashamed of, that, in and of itself; although it's a bit worrying how male my key texts all used to be. Anyway: here we go.

1. Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are. One of my holy books.

2. Tintin. I'd tag the whole of Hergé's output if I were allowed (and who's to say I'm not allowed? You? YOU'RE not the boss of me.) But if I'm not allowed, I'd settle for the two moon mission books. I havered between choosing this and choosing the two Lewis Carroll Alice books, which, in some sense, occupy a similar picture/text place in my imagination's storeroom.

3. The Hobbit/The Lord of the Rings. One novel, you know.

4. Tennyson's 1832 Poems -- this began with falling deeply for 'Mariana', mediated through a profound reaction to Millais painting of the same name; but it lead quickly through into all his other early lyrics. The Lotos Eaters! Ah, The Lotos Eaters.

5. Macbeth. [MACBETH? Argh! Hot-potato-orchestra-stalls-Puck-will-make-amends. *tweaks nose*] This was my O-level Shakespeare; the tomorrow-and-tomorrow speech still has the power to lift the tiny hairs at the back of my neck. Not my favourite Shakespeare any more, but the most shaping and influential of his plays on my *coughs* development.

6. Robert Graves The White Goddess.

7. Nabokov, Pnin. "Lolita" is probably a better novel, and Pale Fire certainly a cleverer one, but Pnin is the most moving, as well as the funniest. It also contained some of Nabokov's best prose. It's also short. I read my Dad's old penguin copy. If I weren't allowed Pnin I'd choose "Signs and Symbols", my single favourite ever short story.

8. Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London. I was a suburban middle-class kid, and material deprivation was a purely notional matter in my life. This book made poverty real to me, imaginatively, and changed the way I saw the world. I could fold Nineteen Eighty-Four in here, too.

9. Dickens. I'm tempted to mention either Little Dorrit or Our Mutual Friend, as they are now my two favourite Dickenses. Dickensseses. But the fact is, it was reading Dombey and Son, and more particularly the chapters detailing little Paul's decline and death, that first took the top of my head off. I remember reading it mouth open at the sheer skill of the writing.

10. Roald Dahl, "A Piece of Cake". This is a tricky one, really: I read Dahl's kid's writing, of course; everyone read it when I was growing up. It was almost compulsory. And there was a TV series made of his adult 'tales of the unexpected' short stories, which was also pretty popular. But this one short story was in a different category: a brief, autobiographical piece about him flying a Gloster Gladiator over the desert, crashing it and waking up in hospital with his burns all bandaged. I remember reading it as an early teenager, for no real reason, just because I chanced upon the paperback. It had the most profound effect upon me. I'm not sure I could diagnose why, or how: it's not a twist-in-the-tale piece, or a sample of his grotesque monstrous inventiveness. Indeed, it's rather oblique. Nor was I particularly interested in world war 2, or the RAF, or flying or anything like that. But the plain fact is: before I read it I had no ambitions to be a writer (I wanted, in point of fact, to make animated cartoons). Then I read it. And after I had read it I wanted to be a writer. Simple as that. Perhaps it had to do with its obliqueness, or its queer reticent potency: it struck me very forceably at a very deep level and I couldn't see how it had done so. At any rate, something vast shifted about inside me as with the motion of great waters, and I wanted to be a writer. Which is, now, what I am.

No science fiction? I know! And I read SF obsessively as a teenager (as I still do). Le Guin would be the eleventh title: The Dispossessed most likely. Though I also loved Earthsea.

]]>http://www.adamroberts.com/2014/09/08/ten-books/feed/2Finished copies of Bête now in …http://www.adamroberts.com/2014/09/04/finished-copies-of-bete-now-in/
http://www.adamroberts.com/2014/09/04/finished-copies-of-bete-now-in/#commentsThu, 04 Sep 2014 09:53:39 +0000http://www.adamroberts.com/?p=1381I'm extremely excited by this ... you can tell, by the ellipses ... these are the ellipses of an excited author ...

]]>http://www.adamroberts.com/2014/09/04/finished-copies-of-bete-now-in/feed/0News for August, or ‘Who Hath Not Seen Thee Oft Amid Thy Online Store?’http://www.adamroberts.com/2014/08/29/news-for-august-or-who-hath-not-seen-thee-oft-amid-thy-online-store/
http://www.adamroberts.com/2014/08/29/news-for-august-or-who-hath-not-seen-thee-oft-amid-thy-online-store/#commentsFri, 29 Aug 2014 19:14:17 +0000http://www.adamroberts.com/?p=1361In the parching August wind cornfields bow the head, sheltered in round valley depths on low hills outspread, and I have been moderately busy. I went on holiday, came back, spent time at Loncon, came back from that. Here's a round-up post of news.

1: is that I have finally rolled up the scroll named 'Punkadiddle'. As you'll see at the end of that link, the best of the old blog is now printed up in a book, £3:42 from amazon online store as e-book, so: you know. Buy! Buy! Buy!

2. I have agreed to act as a judge for next year's Kitschies, which (a) means my own novels are guaranteed NO place on the shortlist, hurrah! (or, wait ... boo?) and (b) a Niagara of books has begun flowing through my front door. The good news is that I get to swap aesthetic judgment with the rest of the panel, all of whom are considerably cooler than I: Kate Griffin, Kim Curran, Frances Hardinge and Glen Mehn. The downside is: it's a lot of reading. There's another downside, which I'm thinking of converting into an upside. You know what they say: when life gives you lemons and industrial quantities of sugar -- make lemonade. Often, after I read a book, I'll write (and blog) a quick review, Writing out my thoughts makes those thoughts clear in my head. Writing, I fear, comes more naturally to me than thinking. So I figured: what if I reviewed every title? Last year I believe the K.s had more than 300 submissions, so I'd be committing myself to a peck of work. But I could turn into a project. Like Magnetic Fields writing and releasing 69 Love Songs. I could do 369 Love Songs: SFF Novels Editions. What do you reckon?

If I review 369 titles at, say, 500 words per review (which if I'm honest is the shorter end of my horribly prolix reviewing habit), we'd be looking at 185,000 words. That would make an interesting e-book: The Complete Science Fiction and Fantasy Output of 2014 Reviewed! (I don't doubt there are many more than 369 SFF titles released in any one year; but it would be a broader sample than the usual review collection manages, and might be interesting to do). At any rate I've made a start: check out the August entries over on the SibFric blog. This may putter out, or gather prodigious steam. I'm honestly not sure.

3. At Loncon Ian Whates launched a book with a story by me (and stories by others, more noteworthy than I) in it: mine being 'Baedecker’s Fermi' in Paradox: Stories of the Fermi Paradox ...

He also launched Sibilant Fricative: the Book. As I mentioned above: Buy! Buy! Buy!

4. Another thing I did this summer was write a 'How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy' book, for the people who used to publish the 'Teach Yourself' franchise, but who have now rebranded them as 'Get Started In'. The proofs for said book came in this week.

5. I also wrote something long-ish for Jared Shurin that may appear as a book-length publication at some later point. I'm quite proud of it actually, but pride is a sin, and I don't want to compound my sinfulness by dilating on the matter here.

Newcon Press are publishing this collection of SF/Fantasy related essays and reviews, with a preface by BSFA Award-winning critic Paul Kincaid, in August (I believe the launch is at Loncon): Newcon supremo Ian Whates facebooked the above photo to show that actual copies are now in existence. Exciting stuff!

I set up the like-named Sibilant Fricative blog in large part to flog, er to 'promote' the book; and so I shall. The blog has accumulated a variety of other things upon it (none of which are in included in the Sibilant Fricative book, confusingly); but don't let that distract you. I intend to flog, er, promote this title within an inch of its life.

I'm not a big fan of the idiom 'cover reveal', actually. It's the 'reveal' part, like I'm a stage performer whisking a white sheet off something as the audience oos and aas. Still that is the idiom, and I'll run with it. So. [takes breath] ... St Martin's Press in New York New York will be putting out Twenty Trillion; and here is the very very lovely cover they have come up with. Isn't it fine?

It's been quiet around here for a little while. Awards seasons has been in full spate and *sigh* it's been an awards season without room for anything I published in 2013, so there's been nothing to report. But just when I thought it was going to pass me by entirely came the rather wonderful news that my short story 'Tollund' has been shortlisted for the 2014 Sidewise Awards. The Sidewise, as you know very well, is dedicated to alternate-history, and this year's shortlists look very strong. I'm delighted to be in such company. Winners will be announced at Loncon.

Hale’s prophetic novel, first published in 1869, is the first to imagine the launch of an artificial satellite – making it the perfect fictional pairing with Stars to Satellites and Longitude Punk’d, two new exhibitions at the Royal Observatory Greenwich.

The new edition comes complete with “Another Brick in the Moon”, a sequel to Hale’s original tale, penned by award-winning science fiction author Adam Roberts.

“The Brick Moon is a fascinating tale that touches on themes of immediate relevance to the Royal Observatory and its history: the quest for longitude, the Greenwich Meridian and satellite technology. And Adam Roberts’ short-story response, ‘Another Brick in the Moon’, has recast the tale in his characteristically beguiling way,” commented Richard Dunn.

The book is decorated by Greenwich artist, Gary Northfield, who selected – and re-imagined - a classic view of the Royal Observatory from the archives of the National Maritime Museum.

The Royal Observatory’s Stars to Satellites exhibition tells the story of satellite navigation technology, from the origins of the idea in Hale’s story to today’s GPS systems and smartphone apps. Meanwhile, Longitude Punk’d takes the historic story of the quest to determine longitude at sea and retells it in a playful fashion through the prism of the Steampunk movement.

Nine prominent Steampunk artists and writers have filled the Royal Observatory’s historic Flamsteed House with fantastical drawings, objects and costumes that evoke a science-fiction version of the 18th 19th-centuries, reflecting the retro aesthetic of The Brick Moon.

Naturally enough, my sequel involves a big climactic scene at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. Pleasingly, I got feedback from the RMG people tweaking the practicalities of this, and was able to incorporate their comments. In all, writing this one was a blast.

]]>http://www.adamroberts.com/2013/11/23/sfx-reviews-riddles-of-the-hobbit/feed/1Jack-din-Sticlăhttp://www.adamroberts.com/2013/11/13/jack-din-sticla/
http://www.adamroberts.com/2013/11/13/jack-din-sticla/#commentsWed, 13 Nov 2013 16:01:43 +0000http://www.adamroberts.com/?p=1295The Trei website has just posted this rather handsome cover-art snap of their upcoming (or, wait: is it out now?) brand new Romanian translation of Jack Glass. Exciting!

"In a future where traveling through the solar system are controlled by a ruthless oligarchy, Jack-in-Bottle is wanted for terrorist activities. Jack believed that his survival is vital for survival of the species and therefore have to commit more crimes ... The three parts of the book are all detective fiction intrigue, crossed by a common thread. The first takes place in a grim prison space abounds in accents of despair and horror. It's basically an introduction to the second part, using classic cyberpunk theme of war between supranational corporations."

Here be the details of my upcoming talk at Guildford Public Library: Saturday 23 November 2013 13:30 -- 15:00. And the title of the talk be: "Can science fiction become science fact?" And that image, at the top of this post, be a photograph of Guildford Public Library itself.

Simon, my editor, talks a little bit about how he commissioned this gorgeous cover on the Gollancz blog today. He also notes that the novel itself includes a talking cat. It's true. However felinophobic I may, myself, be, I figured it was time. And, you know: Sabrina the Teenage Witch features a talking cat. Bulgakov features a talking cat. Considering the kind of writer I am, you can probably guess whereabouts on the scale strung between those two felines my own talking cat comes. Besides, there's a lot more than just a cat. For example, the novel starts, as does the Quran itself, with a cow.

[This is very exciting. The I-daresay-its-pronounceable-if-you're-Finnish journal NJSFFR is to launch at this year's Swecon, with the first issue coming next year. And, actually, themselves thinking 'The Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research' may not be quite pithy enough, the editors are running a competition for a snappier name. Below is the press release. You'll see that I'm on the advisory board for the new journal, but don't let that put you off submitting your excellent SFF research.]

The FINFAR Society Launches a SF / Fantasy Research Journal
The Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research is a refereed, interdisciplinary journal published by the FINFAR Society (Suomen science fiction- ja fantasiatutkimuksen seura ry.) from 2014 onwards.
The purpose of the journal is to introduce and develop research focusing on science fiction and fantasy literature, audiovisual art, games, and fan culture by providing an interdisciplinary perspective on current issues and debates within research into these genres.

The journal is published online in PDF-form. In addition to the peer-reviewed articles, the journal publishes essays, interviews, opinion pieces and academic book reviews. The main language of the journal is English, but articles will also be published in the Nordic languages. The journal’s website will also contain a special section on Nordic research, with information on publications, reviews and university theses on science fiction and fantasy.
The first Editors for the journal are:

Jyrki Korpua, University of Oulu (literary studies)
Hanna-Riikka Roine, University of Tampere (literary studies)
Päivi Väätänen, University of Helsinki (English)

The name contest
We refuse to call this journal only by its official name. It should be Bob. Or Susan. Or, preferably, something Nordic. Think of a name for the NJSFFR and win a life-time membership in the FINFAR Society and a supporting membership at Finncon 2014! Please send suggestions to merja.polvinen@helsinki.fi by 30th November 2013.

Join us to explore the impact of the Internet, digital technology and social media on human memory. From Google and GPS to lifelogging services, we are outsourcing more and more cognitive faculties. But are we really becoming shallower, lazier, more stupid? Join novelist Adam Roberts (New Model Army), Stacey Pitsillides (Digital Death), Wendy Moncur (LivingDigital, University of Dundee) and James Smyth (The Machine) to debate one of the most important issues facing us in the 21st Century.

Not sure why they've confiscated the terminal 'e' on James's surname, there. Maybe it's something to do with Cheltenham Council Health and Safety. No matter. Then the following day (Saturday the 5th) I'm doing this splendid-looking Tolkien panel, with the brilliant Brian Sibley, the marvellous Jane Johnson and thinking fantasy-reader's crumpet Joe Abercrombie:

Lord of the Rings regularly tops lists of the best books of all time, and is loved worldwide. But what makes it so special? Former Tolkien publisher Jane Johnson, and as Jude Fisher the writer of the visual companions to Peter Jackson’s films, is joined by author of The First Law trilogy Joe Abercrombie; by Brian Sibley, author of The Lord of the Rings film guides and co-adapter of the classic BBC Radio 4 serialisation, and by Adam Roberts, who’s homage to Tolkien, The Soddit was published last year.

So: the Soddit is ten years old now, give or take. And that should be 'whose', not 'who's'. But whose counting? I mean 'who's'?

It would be very nice to see you there. But if you don't come, I won't cry. I'll understand. I won't cry on the outside, at any rate.

Courtesy of the estimable Ian Whates, here is the cover for my upcoming collection of Essays and Reviews, soon to be published by Newcon Press (also check out the like-named blog). GASP AT MY BEAUTY, O WORLD! GASP, I SAY!

Introduction: "Some Words from an Egyptologist" by John J. Johnston (Egypt Exploration Society)
"Ramesses on the Frontier" by Paul Cornell
"Escape from the Mummy's Tomb" by Jesse Bullington
"Old Souls" by David Thomas Moore
"Her Heartbeat, An Echo" by Lou Morgan
"Mysterium Tremendum" by Molly Tanzer
"Tollund" by Adam Roberts
"The Curious Case of the Werewolf that Wasn't, The Mummy that Was and the Cat in the Jar" by Gail Carriger
"The Cats of Beni Hasan" by Jenni Hill
"Cerulean Memories" by Maurice Broaddus
"Inner Goddess" by Michael West
"The Roof of the World" by Sarah Newton
"Henry" by Glen Mehn
"The Dedication of Sweetheart Abbey" by David Bryher
"All is Dust" by Den Patrick
"Bit-U-Men" by Maria Dahvana Headley
"Egyptian death and the afterlife: mummies (Rooms 62-3)" by Jonathan Green
"Akhenaten Goes to Paris" by Louis Greenberg
"The Thing of Wrath" by Roger Luckhurst
"Three Memories of Death" by Will Hill

I am appearing at what the good people at Literature Wales are pleased to call a "sci fi, fantasy and horror festival" at the Riverfront in Newport, 18-19 October. But I won't be alone, oh no! Also appearing are: Alastair Reynolds Large As Life And Twice As Natural; Tim Lebbon; Jon Chase; Mark Brake; the incomparable Graham Joyce; Yomi Ayeni; Dimitra Fimi; Rhianna Pratchett; Gwyneth Lewis; Mark Morris; Steve Volk; Louis Savy; Gwilym Games; Steve Bond; Dan Dan the Anthony Man; the delectable Jasper Fforde; the mighty Ben Aaronovitch; Horatio Clare; Catherine Fisher; Huw Aaron; Turnip Starfish (yes, really); Catherine Bray and Sarwat Chadda [you can see the full list of people appearing, and their bios, here]. That's a pretty impressive list of names! Since it's not alphabetical, I assume it's in order either of importance -- which, since they squeeze me in between Louis Savy and Gwilym Games, is fair enough -- or of Welshness, in which case I think I am entitled to feel a little snubbed. Still. I'm excited to be going!

Details of the festival, and of how to book and so on, are here. Come! I insist.

Some of the science fiction collected herein is stunning, as essential as it is eclectic, but perhaps an equal quantity of it can be summarised thusly: here’s an idea. Isn’t it interesting? Next!

I take the force of this latter criticism, directed (of course) at me. But part of me thinks: I've read a thousand collections of SF short fiction that, in effect, do precisely that. Perhaps it (the logic thumbnailed in Alexander's pithy phrase) is part of the problematic of short SF itself? Or is that just me trying to wriggle free from under the butterfly pin? Either way, Here’s an idea. Isn’t it interesting? Next! strikes me as an excellent title for a collection of science fiction short stories, and I may appropriate it for future use.

]]>http://www.adamroberts.com/2013/09/05/sir-niallalot-reviews/feed/1Riddleses of the Hobbitseshttp://www.adamroberts.com/2013/09/05/riddleses-of-the-hobbitses/
http://www.adamroberts.com/2013/09/05/riddleses-of-the-hobbitses/#commentsThu, 05 Sep 2013 07:09:48 +0000http://www.adamroberts.com/?p=1222It seems the proofs of this book (due out December this year) have arrived in the Palgrave office; though they have yet to make their way out to me. Exciting!

General information
Science fiction is all about imagining the future but how successful have past writers been and how realistic are the imaginings of contemporary sci-fi writers? Have they achieved a realistic vision or are their works implausible? Science fiction novelist, Adam Roberts, examines the issues.

Adam teaches English Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London. In April this year, the University of Lincoln’s Department of English hosted an international conference on Adam’s writing.

Intended for ages 14 and above.

Tickets are £5, including refreshments.

Book online using debit or credit cards.

Telephone credit/debit card bookings on 01483 543599. A small handling charge may apply.

Tickets can also be bought in person from Guildford library.
For ticket sales:-

Gardner Dozois's 30th collection of the Best SF of the year is out. It contains a story by me, but (to quote Paul McAuley, who has two stories in the volume), 'don't let that put you off.' I might as well go on quoting Paul, actually:

Gardner says: 'Every year is special, because every year good new writers come along, and every year the older writers continue to do really good work. It's exciting to watch the field evolve, and I don't think the overall level of literary quality in science fiction has ever been higher-and I've been watching the field for a long time.'

Some fun facts:
Annual editions of this anthology have been published continuously since 1984. At a rough count, the series as a whole has contained about 9,500,000 words of fiction, by hundreds of different authors. It has won the Locus Award for Best Anthology seventeen times, more than any other anthology series in history. Gardner Dozois has won fifteen Hugo Awards as Year's Best Editor, and has been inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. Robert Silverberg said of the series 'The Dozois book is the definitive historical record of the history of the science-fiction short story' and called it "a wondrous treasure trove of great stories and an archive that has immeasurable historical significance." George R.R. Martin said 'The best that science fiction has to offer, chosen by the most respected editor in the field. A copy belongs on the shelf of every SF reader.'

Here's the TOC, if you're interested; and you can buy it here. I don't know when it'll be out in the UK.

That's better. Well, my collection of short fiction was published. It has been variously reviewed, and I have been unsystematic about gathering notices together. But here is one I saw today, by Niall Harrison, that tall man, on the Strange Horizons blog:

Thesis: Adam Roberts is distinctive among contemporary sf writers not just because he writes unashamed ideas-fiction, but because he writes unashamed old ideas-fiction. There aren’t many novums here you won’t have seen before, from the Adamic robot of the title to the various kinds of immortality, the ethics-modifying substances to the time travel devices. That’s perhaps true of much of the field, and yet by and large Roberts doesn’t pursue either of the common strategies for dealing with it, or even give much indication that he sees it as a problem; he doesn’t really write multi-novum stories, and his worlds are often too streamlined to be fully immersive. So in what ways do the stories here work? First, I think Roberts is getting extremely good at structure; his stories vary widely in length and register, from a very effectively fragmented tale like “A Prison Term of a Thousand Years” (2008), which at four pages is in no danger of outstaying its welcome, to a near-novella-length piece like “Anticopernicus” (2010), which uses its duration to invest its Fermi Paradox-riff with psychological and thematic complexity. Second, his writing is precise and often funny, with its now-familiar precise yet fussy-fidgety style. And third the absence of immersion is actually often freeing, used as a prompt to encourage critical reading and reflection. Some of my favourite stories are the most meta-referential, such as “Wonder: A Story in Two” (2007), which explicitly investigates the notion of conceptual breakthrough, and is echoed by “Dennis Bayle: A Life” (2013), a review of an imaginary book filled with imaginary books that asserts and (I think) disproves the notion that sense-of-wonder requires “novelistic momentum.” Most of the pieces here didn’t get much attention on their first publication -- there are few Year’s Best alumni, and no award nominees -- but Adam Robots demonstrates that Roberts can be as effective in the short form as in the long.

Finally, Pete Young sent me the following photo, with the following message: 'my son Miles is 4 next week, loves robots and rockets, which is a good start. When he saw the cover of Adam Robots, he went for it... I've been trying to get him started on something a little less high-concept, but this time he insisted.' I say: give me a child until he is 4, and I shall make him a Robot Jesuit! Or words to that effect.

]]>http://www.adamroberts.com/2013/08/05/adam-robots-reader/feed/2… back. In Black. And White. And Red (with pleasure) All Over.http://www.adamroberts.com/2013/08/05/back-in-black/
http://www.adamroberts.com/2013/08/05/back-in-black/#commentsMon, 05 Aug 2013 19:59:16 +0000http://www.adamroberts.com/?p=1196Apologies for the way this site fell into silence. It was probably a stunned silence -- Jack Glass won the BSFA and Campbell awards, and I was as amazed as I was delighted. I have the trophies sitting on my mantlepiece now, and it's taken me a while to gather my chin from the floor. But I promise to blog more assiduously from hereon in.
]]>http://www.adamroberts.com/2013/08/05/back-in-black/feed/12013 John W. Campbell Memorial Award Shortlisthttp://www.adamroberts.com/2013/05/19/2013-john-w-campbell-memorial-award-shortlist/
http://www.adamroberts.com/2013/05/19/2013-john-w-campbell-memorial-award-shortlist/#commentsSun, 19 May 2013 08:48:31 +0000http://www.adamroberts.com/?p=1189I could not be more delighted to have made the (very strong) 2013 John W. Campbell Memorial Award shortlist:

The award, for best SF novel, will be presented during the Campbell Conference, to be held July 13-16, 2013 at the Oread Hotel in Lawrence KS.

I wish I could go, but on the 14th I'm giving a TEDx talk at the Houses of Parliament. Still; to be on the same list as Empty Space, Intrusion, The Fractal Prince, Blue Remembered Earth, 2312, Alif the Unseen and the rest is enormously flattering, and an honour.

"FUTURA presents a convention day on Saturday 15th June crammed full of science-fiction, including panels, readings, kafeeklatsches and much more on the day. Futura brings together a host of science-fiction authors and publishers for a day loaded with panels, readings, signings, booksales and much more. We will also be having an all day Real Ale bar."

Tickets are £25 available from our box office, or via wegottickets.com

]]>http://www.adamroberts.com/2013/05/02/futura/feed/0Apocalypse, Thursdayhttp://www.adamroberts.com/2013/05/01/apocalypse-thursday/
http://www.adamroberts.com/2013/05/01/apocalypse-thursday/#commentsWed, 01 May 2013 10:26:44 +0000http://www.adamroberts.com/?p=1168I['ll be appearing at this fascinating-looking panel. I do hope you can come:

the Post-apocalyptic Book Club and Waterstones Piccadilly are hosting a discussion event, on Thursday 2nd May at 7pm, which will delve into the murky depths of dystopia, its impact on Sci-Fi literature and what the awards mean to genre fiction.

Frances Hardinge - British author best known for her novel 'Fly By Night' which in 2006 won the Branford Boase Award. Her 2012 novel A Face Like Glass was nominated and short listed for a Kitschie.

Jeff Norton - Canadian author, writer-director, and founder of creative incubator Awesome. Jeff is best known for the best-selling Metawars series, and MetaWars 3.0: Battle of the Immortal is released the day of the panel!

The panel will take place on Thursday 2nd May 2013 at 7.00pm at Waterstones, Piccadilly. Tickets are just £5.00/£3.00 Waterstones Card holders and you can by either emailing events@piccadilly.waterstones.co.uk or telephoning 020 7851 2400.

Speculative Fiction was released last Thursday (25 April); You can find it in the US for $11.99 and in the UK for £8.99. In addition to my piece on Ayn Rand, it has a wealth of brilliant articles and critical readings. Proceeds from all sales go to Room to Read. So -- c'mon! What's keeping you?

The editors say: "the Kindle version created by the Amazon computers wasn't up to snuff, so we're having it rebuilt by a human. It will will shortly, and should be on sale by 2 May".

My contributor copy of this handsome volume, edited by Jonathan Strahan, came through the post today. Some excellent stories therein, but also my own 'What Did Tessimond Tell You?' Actually I'm pretty proud of this tale: formally traditional, but with some (I think) nice touches. It first appeared in Ian Whates' Solaris 1.2.

If it were possible, I'd like to publish 'What Did Tessimond Tell You?' in a forking, dual format. It's a story divided (traditional Shakespearian structure, see) into five parts. In the fifth part you the reader discovers the answer to the question posed by the tale's title. But I'm not sure that the story doesn't work better if you stop reading at the end of part 4. So: my ideal format would lay these facts before the reader and ask her to choose: do you want to read 1-4, or all 5? Then the e-book would lock you into your choice. Strahan's conventional book doesn't give you that option -- but that's not to say you shouldn't buy a copy. You so should!

]]>http://www.adamroberts.com/2013/04/16/best-science-fiction-and-fantasy-of-the-year-vol-7/feed/1New blogshttp://www.adamroberts.com/2013/04/16/new-blogs/
http://www.adamroberts.com/2013/04/16/new-blogs/#commentsMon, 15 Apr 2013 23:57:51 +0000http://www.adamroberts.com/?p=1155My old blogs having been guillotined, for various reasons, there are two new blogs. One is for 19th-century literary and related matters, and may interest you less. (I don't know! How would I know?). The other, Sibilant Fricative, is SFnal; but of limited scope. Limited how, you ask? This post explains matters.